michelle ward has challenged to a new theme: “make it your own”!!~~~~~
i love the definitions she brings up:
when you make it your own, it´s art
when you follow directions, it´s craft
“When you follow directions, as you would a recipe, or copy a project from a magazine – that is craft. Personalizing, interpreting, processing through your own filters, is art.”
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i´ve done a lot of crafting in my younger years… knitting, cross-stitching, silk painting… mostly “by recipes” —
it was only when i came to collaging (via detecting the tool of rubber stamps) that i got a totally new feeling – that feeling of freedom in creating…
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when i start to make a journal page, an altered book spread etc. the first thing is making a background of my own… though i have gathered a lot of wonderful scrapbook papers, i mostly end up with painting/dying my own papers – most of the time in vibrant colors. i just can´t create in brown (though i often admire how others can!). it´s also hard for me to create in black/white! i always have my fingers at vivid colors (often with complementary accents) in the shortest of times..
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like many of us i´m a collector. of almost everything! (michelle speaks of the wonderful collage sheets out there… great vintage faces etc… i have bought quite some of them – but… i started to give them away, i feel they are “not me”… and – as she said – i´m often bored by the over-usage of them; they lost their freshness…)
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in the piece above you can see some things i always collected: f.e. postal stamps. i have tons of them (and i mean: tons!!). too many actually, so often i don´t find what i´m searching for;))~~~~~
another hoarded element: old book pages… (fine, if in foreign languages or the old german style of letters) – on lazy days i just dye heaps of pages in various colors to have some dry & ready for every occasion… here: to print on some text
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and i was always drawn to film strips; i´m happy i didn´t throw away the rolls which happend to turn out black (got light in the camera…).
here i used one as a base for printed muybridge pictures (another all-time-favorite!)
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this piece was made in january/february… the year was young and i wanted to make something with a “positive twist”…
started with the dancing woman in two sizes (company: moon rose)… i remembered the dancing woman from eadweard muybridge, which is very similar to that stamp… wanted to enforce the feeling of that “pictures in motion” by adding them to a film strip…
the words came along by themselves (yes, recalled from my brain database;)) – of course one of my numerous alphas had to be involved…
found by chance these postal stamps (the bloom seems to repeat the hand position of the woman: click to enlarge, so you might see it)…
some more stamping of details & done!
Phantastisch, Johanna!!!
Tolle Seite mit so vielen Details! Genial! Ganz liebe Grüße, Manuela
I love the dark film strip against the pink background – very cool. Isn’t it amazing what collectors we become? LOL
wieder mal ein sahne stückchen,Johanna!
ein wunderschönes Werk, sehr anregend und der Text sehr inspirierend ,kann dir nur zustimmen,
Boah wow ich kann nur staunen. Was für ein tolle Seite. Klasse.
johanna – terrific page! thanks for sharing with the team and for sharing your honest thoughts about gaining the freedom of creativity by finding your own voice, your own style, your own way. bravo!
Eine tolle Seite, Johanna!
Love the way you used the old film strip in this, and that beautiful vivid pink!
What a great piece! I love that quote, too-I have a big painting of a ballerina with the same quote hanging in my studio. I love how you put together all your collected pieces to make.it.your.own.
–Jane